I think there were expectations, fair or not, that were developed before the season started, and our perception of Caleb may be shaded by how he is performing against those expectations. I recall some posters predicting that he may be our second leading scorer this year, but that may have been before Kon started making his presence known in preseason practices.
I was predicting back in the summer that our top 3 scorers would be Cooper, Kon, Caleb. Caleb is fourth at 8.8ppg.
The X-and-O gurus (Kako?) should weigh in. My question to you is, if we are playing a five-out offense, why is a point guard the most important position on the team? Also if we have a distributor like Cooper. If he's 6-0 or 6-1, doesn't that prevent us from switching on every play, which seems to be Jon's preferred style of play?
Not having a point guard wasn't much of an issue for our #1 offense in '21-'22. Teams that rely on a point guard to distribute the ball and facilitate the offense may still need a traditional point guard. Teams that effectively run their offense through other players, not so much. How well we can do the latter remains to be seen, of course.
I posted the stats for assist to turnover for: Kon, Cooper and Sion on the Seattle game thread. I'll just post these here. Stats for the games against Kentucky, Kansas and Arizona: Cooper: 8 assists, 11 turnovers, Kon: 14 assists and 5 turnovers. Sion: 5 assists and 4 turnovers. We just need to find a way for Kon to pass the ball to himself.
This is the answer. Jon believes his two best playmakers are Cooper and Kon. It's like the Celtics running through Tatum and Brown. Or the Mavs running through Irving and Doncic.
It wasn't Caleb and I understand why. He's shown he's a better off the ball player. At times he can get to the basket and score but he hasn't shown he can be a consistent distributor. Tyrese is the clear choice for a point-guard if Jon decides to do that. Last night Tyrese handled the ball more but still made himself available for catch and shoot 3s. Cooper led the team with 7 assists (3 TOs) and Tyrese had 4 assists and only 1 turnover. Caleb was 2/2 and Kon 1/1. Sion was 2/1. Looking at the guard's style of play Tyrese would be the obvious choice to play point-guard, but then we lose his 3-point shooting. Same with Kon. It's apparent this team needs to improve on offense. The defense is fine.
Why has Sheyer not recruited a point guard in the last two years! In my opinion it is simply the most important position on a basketball team!
Probably because he is trying to work his way to a 5-out offense?
Can’t this still be accomplished with a PG
Yes and no. An offense run principally through a point guard isn't a 5-out offense, but I suppose a point guard could be taught to fit in with the concept.
But a good point guard that is "not going to be a point guard" but a complement to a 5-out offense will probably not want to be at Duke...
Is what we're seeing on the court our attempt to play 5 out? Because this team seems particularly ill-suited for that. Of our starters, MM and Flagg have neither the ball handling nor shooting skills needed. Caleb and Proctor can shoot but neither has shown himself capable of driving/finishing consistently. Looking at our bench, other than maybe Sion we don't have the personnel to pull it off.
Not gonna lie, there wasn't a lot there that made me confident. When "figure it out" just looks like a disorganized mess...what he calls "micro-managing" I'd call hands-on coaching, something this team really needs in these key games.
And when historically teams that are in the 1 and 2 seed lines have much greater odds at reaching the Final Four. I don't want to be a 3 or 4. We need these wins. Beat Auburn and much of this goes away but that is gonna be quite the challenge.
So, Cooper Flagg, a heckuva player in every way, has little or no ball-handling or shooting skills? I think our coaches would have a chortle over that assertion.
